A year ago, Djokovic became the first man in nearly a half-century to claim a fourth consecutive major championship and completed a career grand slam at Roland Garros.
But his form has dipped considerably since then, and now he has gone four majors in a row without earning a trophy.
“It’s a fact that I’m not playing close to my best,” Djokovic said. “This is a whole new situation that I’m feeling.”
On Wednesday at a windy Court Suzanne Lenglen, Djokovic was out of sorts in so many ways, even before that 20-minute third set in which he won only eight of 34 points. That was only the second time that Djokovic lost a final set by the score of 6-0 in his 937 career tour-level matches.
“It was not there for me today,” Djokovic said with a sigh.
He wasted two set points in the opener. By the end of the match, he wound up with nearly twice as many unforced errors, 35, as winners, 18. His backhand was particularly problematic.
Known for tremendous footwork and court coverage, the No 2-seeded Serb even stumbled and tumbled to the court, his racket flying out of his hands, early in the second set. Djokovic was left on his knees, and soon he would be out of the tournament entirely.
“All in all,” Djokovic said, “it was decided, I think, in the first set.”
How unlikely was this result?
Djokovic entered the day having won all five previous matches – and 11 of 12 sets – against Thiem, including in the French Open semi-finals a year ago.
“It’s amazing for me,” Thiem said. “To beat him for the first time in the quarters of the French Open is a dream.”
Plus, Djokovic had appeared in a record six consecutive semi-finals in Paris. But this continued what has become something of a 12-month downward slide for him since he finally grabbed hold of the French Open championship he had so long sought.
Since then, the highlight for Djokovic was a runner-up finish at the US Open. Otherwise, he lost his No 1-ranking to Andy Murray and lost in the third round of Wimbledon, the first round of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the second round of the Australian Open.
Along the way, he split with his coaches – first Boris Becker then Marian Vajda, along with other members of his entourage.
Djokovic enlisted Andre Agassi for coaching help during Week 1 of the French Open, but Agassi had some prior commitments and so was gone by the time Djokovic faced Thiem.
Thiem, 23, will face nine-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal next.
“You have to play the best guys round after round,” Thiem said.
“It’s not getting easier on Friday.”
The other men’s quarter-finals scheduled for later on Wednesday: 2016 runner-up Murray against No 8 Kei Nishikori, and 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka against No 7 Marin Cilic.
Thiem is a talented, up-and-coming player, to be sure, and he is the only man to beat Nadal in the Spaniard’s 23 matches on clay in 2017. That came in the quarter-finals of the Italian Open last month.
Earlier Wednesday, Nadal reached his record 10th French Open semi-final when No 20 Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain retired from their match early in the second set because of an injured abdominal muscle he said began bothering him on a serve at 5-2 in the first.
Nadal led 6-2, 2-0 when Carreno Busta stopped.
Nadal has dropped only 22 games so far in the tournament, the fewest he has lost on the way to any of his 26 major semi-final berths.
“I don’t know how many games I lost this year, but I really don’t care about this, no?” Nadal said. “I only care that I am in the semi-finals.”
World No 1 Andy Murray advanced to his fifth French Open semi-final by defeating Japanese eighth seed Kei Nishikori 2-6, 6-1, 7-6, 6-1.
Murray, who was runner-up to Djokovic at Roland Garros last year, will meet 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka for a spot in Sunday’s final.
Nishikori outdueled Murray in a five-set classic at last year’s US Open and looked capable of a repeat success as he rolled through the opening set.
But Murray responded by taking the second set with ease and stormed through a third-set tie-break before finishing off a tiring Nishikori to seal a fourth successive semi-final appearance in Paris.
“I needed to start putting more pace on my shots, he was dictating all the points in the first set. It was windy, so the timing was difficult, but once I was able to get into a rhythm and keep him away from the baseline, that made the difference,” Murray said.
Wawrinka became the oldest French Open semi-finalist in 32 years when he brushed aside Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.
Swiss third seed Wawrinka, the 2015 title winner, has not lost a set on his way to a third successive semi-final in Paris.
The 32-year-old is the oldest man to make the last four at Roland Garros since Jimmy Connors in 1985.
“It was perfect today, I’m very satisfied,” said Wawrinka, who will be playing in his third successive Roland Garros semi-final.
“I played well, was very solid and took my opportunities.”
On the women’s side, Simona Halep saved a match point and fought back from a set and 5-1 down to defeat Elina Svitolina 3-6, 7-6, 6-0 to reach her second French Open semi-final.
The third-seeded Romanian, who was runner-up to Maria Sharapova in Paris in 2014, will face Karolina Pliskova, the Czech second seed, for a place in Saturday’s final.
Both women also have a chance of taking the world number one spot.
“I don’t know how I came back,” admitted 25-year-old Halep, who ran away with 12 of the last 13 games to avenge her loss to Svitolina in the Rome final.
Fifth seed Svitolina had looked well-set to become the first Ukrainian woman to make a grand slam semi-final.
She allowed Halep just four winners in the first set and coasted into a 5-1 lead in the second.
Twice she served for victory at 5-2 and 5-4 before going on to waste a match point at 6/5 in the tie-breaker.
Halep needed no second invitation, sprinting through the final set in just 20 minutes before taking victory with an ace.
Svitolina, who had been two points from defeat in the fourth round against Petra Martic, finished the quarter-final with 45 unforced errors.
“She was playing tough, hard and strong,” Halep said.
“Maybe I was a little lucky but I didn’t give up.”
Czech second seed Pliskova reached the semi-finals for the first time with a 7-6, 6-4 win over home hope Caroline Garcia.
The Czech edged a marathon 77-minute first set against 28th seed Garcia in a tie-break, having failed to convert an earlier set point at 5-3.
The 25-year-old then broke Garcia as the Frenchwoman served to stay in the match to clinch just her second semi-final appearance at a grand slam.
“It was very tough. She played very well, we were both serving well. She played a great tournament, even today, it was 50-50, it came down to about two points I’m really glad I made it,” Pliskova said.
She entered this year’s Roland Garros with just two wins in five previous visits.
“I am very happy. Before the tournament I wasn’t sure if I could play good tennis on clay.”
Pliskova, 25, will replace Angelique Kerber as the new women’s world No 1 if she makes the final in Paris.
* Agencies
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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
How to improve Arabic reading in early years
One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient
The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers
Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades
Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic
First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations
Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades
Improve the appearance of textbooks
Revision of curriculum should be undertaken as per research findings
Conjugations of most common verb forms should be taught
Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar
